111 Maplewood Ave. developers propose car lifts for added parking

Wednesday

Oct 30, 2013 at 3:05 PMOct 30, 2013 at 3:11 PM

PORTSMOUTH — Developers of a mixed-use building proposed for 111 Maplewood Ave. project are considering installing car lifts inside their future development in order to allay any concerns related to parking.

Charles McMahon

PORTSMOUTH — Developers of a mixed-use building proposed for 111 Maplewood Ave. project are considering installing car lifts inside their future development in order to allay any concerns related to parking.

The project, which still must gain approval from the city’s Planning Board, calls for a four-story building with commercial space on the first floor and 71 residential units on the upper floors.

As proposed, the project features enough parking spaces to satisfy the city’s zoning requirements. Developers, however, said they want to ensure the new structure contains more than what is considered to be an adequate amount of parking.

Architect Lisa DeStefano said the development team of R.J. Finlay & Co., a company based in Bedford, are proposing to install 50 car lifts on the first floor parking area.

Because there is 14-16 feet of space planned between the floor and the ceiling, DeStefano said, project officials feel they can squeeze in a series of car lifts that will allow vehicles to be essentially stacked on each other.

While the proposal has yet to be fully engineered, DeStefano said, it has proven successful in other municipalities. If the lifts are implemented, that would increase the parking on site to 154 spaces, an increase of 50 spaces over the previous plan.

“Anything we could do to layer in additional parking spaces will help the project,” she said.

The need for additional parking was something DeStefano said the project team heard from both the community and the city.

“We are trying to assist in alleviating a parking problem that already exists,” she said.

DeStefano said the team is also looking at creating parking spaces around the perimeter of the project area, as well as improving pedestrian crossings.

“We absolutely want to meet the requirements and to add more to our project,” she said. “This will have less of an impact on the community.”

The project is expected to go before the city’s Technical Advisory Committee next week. The Historic District Commission has already granted the development proposal a certificate of approval, but that is being contested by a contingent of city residents.

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